1. Unit 5a: Keeping Healthy
The Heart and
Lungs
Key Stage 2: Year 5 Science
by Mrs. Chapman, 2005
Greet School, Birmingham

2. Introduction
1 The human body
2 What does the heart do?
3 Heart key facts
4 Heart health
5 What do the lungs do?
6 Lungs key facts
7 The circulation
8 Pulse and exercise
9 Pulse rate data
10 How do I look after them?
Heart and lungs quiz
Links for further study
Unit 5a Keeping Healthy: The Heart and Lungs Year 5 Science by Mrs. Chapman

3. The human body
• Your body is very special.
• We need to look after our
bodies to stay healthy.
• Although we may look still and
quiet on the outside, our body
is constantly moving and
changing inside.
• Can you find the brain, the
heart and the lungs?
Back to Introduction

4. What does the heart do?
• Your heart, made of muscle, pumps
blood around your body via blood
vessels (tubes).
• The heart is inside your chest,
protected by bones - the ribs and
breast bone.
• When the heart pumps, it beats - we
measure the heartbeat via the pulse
- easily found on your wrist and neck.
• Blood carries oxygen to the parts of
the body that need it.
Back to Introduction

5. Heart key facts
• Your heart is about the size of your fist.
• In most adults it beats about 70 times a minute
(70 bpm).
• In children and small animals, the heart beats
faster.
• The first heart transplant was in 1967.
• You cannot normally live for more than 5
minutes if your heart stops beating.
• Heart disease is the number 1 killer in the
western world!
• Doctors examine your heart by taking the pulse
(to see how fast it’s beating), ECGs (special
electrical rhythm charts), x-rays and scans
including ultrasound (like an unborn baby
scan).
Back to Introduction

6. Heart health
Heart on chest x-ray
Man having a chest x-ray
Ultrasound output
ECG graph output Back to Introduction

7. What do the lungs do?
• Your lungs receive the air you breathe
in through your nose.
• When you breathe in, the lungs puff-
out or inflate, and deflate when you
breathe out.
• From the air, they take the useful part
- oxygen (a gas), and convert it for use
in the body via the bloodstream.
• The blood swaps carbon dioxide (the
waste material) for oxygen in the lungs.
This is why the lungs are often said to
convert gases.
Back to Introduction

8. Lungs key facts
• You have 2 lungs.
• Your lungs are protected by your
ribcage.
• Close-up, they look like a wet sponge.
• The left lung is smaller - to
accommodate your heart (see the x-ray
showing the heart).
• Your lungs are particularly vulnerable to
breathing-in nasty substances - toxic
chemicals, smoke from fires and
cigarette smoke all damage your lungs.
Back to Introduction

9. The circulation
• Blood (with oxygen and nutrients)
goes round our bodies via the
heart. We call this circulation
(from the word ‘circle’).
• The heart sends blood to the
lungs first to collect the oxygen
from the air we’ve just breathed-
in, then it goes to where it’s
needed (this is shown in red).
• The blood then returns to the
lungs via the heart (this is shown in
blue) with carbon dioxide - the gas
that we breathe out.
• This is described as a figure of ‘8’.
Back to Introduction

10. Pulse and exercise
• When you exercise parts • What parts of the body
of your body need an need an increased blood
increased blood supply supply when running?
(more oxygen and
nutrients) so your heart • Take your resting pulse
beats faster. and produce a bar chart
• You also breathe faster - of your group’s results.
to get more oxygen into • What is the most
your lungs, and to get rid common range for pulse?
of the carbon dioxide.
• You also get hot and
sometimes flushed (or
red faced).
Back to Introduction

11. Pulse rate data
After 2
min
After 1
min Miss B
Mr A
Mr s C
Jumping
Rest
0 100 20 0
Back to Introduction

12. How do I look after them?
By doing exercise regularly: • How can we check
• our hearts get fitter and bigger
- better at pumping blood and
that exercise is good
not needing to work so hard or for our hearts or
fast. lungs?
• our lungs get stronger and
have increased capacity so we • What else could we
are able to take in more check to see if
oxygen in a single breath.
exercise is good for
• we will feel healthier.
us?
Back to Introduction

13. Heart and Lungs Quiz
Are they True or False?
• Your heart pumps blood around your body.
• The heartbeat of smaller animals and children is slower than adults
or big animals.
• Your blood carries carbon dioxide to all the parts that need it .
• Your lungs exchange gases.
• Blood travels around the body in a figure of ‘8’.
• Your pulse tells you how much air you are breathing.
• Athletes have a slower resting pulse than unfit people.
• The ribs are bones that protect the heart and lungs.
• Exercise and eating healthily are good for your heart.
Back to Introduction

14. Heart and Lungs Quiz
• Your heart pumps blood around your body.
– True
• The heartbeat of smaller animals and children is slower than adults or
big animals.
– False – the smaller the animal the faster the heartbeat .
• Your blood carries carbon dioxide to all the parts that need it .
– False – the blood carries oxygen to all the parts that need it.
• Your lungs exchange gases.
– True
• Blood travels around the body in a figure of ‘8’.
– True
• Your pulse tells you how much air you are breathing.
– False – pulse tells us how fast your heart is beating.
• Athletes have a slower resting pulse than unfit people.
– True
• The ribs are bones that protect the heart and lungs.
– True
• Exercise and eating healthily are good for your heart.
– True
Back to Introduction

15. Useful links for further study
• http://www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/biology/abpi/heart/index.html
Back to Introduction